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Friday Football Foodie – Limping into the playoffs

Saying that I am behind on the Friday Football Foodie is a bit of an understatement, but in a weird way my performance is not that different from how many teams ended the season.

Week 16 – Dec 20, 22, 23 – In a Thursday night game against the Rams, Steelers running back and league leading rusher Willie Parker goes out with a broken fibula. FFF is not posted due to food poisoning from a bad turkey sandwich. (It was going to be about the above Steelers sugar cookies* with buttercream frosting and these great pumpkin spice cookies** that are perfect for the holidays. Sent batches out to all of the Ladies and Tuffy.)

Week 17 – Dec 29, 30 – Every playoff bound team is resting their starters if they can. FFF is not posted due to lack of internet at a spa retreat. (Athletes get deep tissue massages and feel a great sense of relief; I get a deep tissue massage and am sore for two days.) There is something to resting your starters though. Who knows when injury can happen. The FFF’s camera which had been on the fritz for awhile was dropped onto a marble floor at the spa from which it will never recover, thus hurting the FFF’s playoff run.

Which means the Friday Football Foodie is much like the Colts right now; Haven’t had a game that tested them since Week 14 against the Ravens and are completely beat up.***
But we solider on. No step-by-step directions. Instead of the usual 16-24 pictures that make up the Friday Football Foodie there is one photo, and camera phone picture at that.

This recipe was given to me from a friend – who can be seen in the background of the homemade corn dog FFF – who got it from Cooking Light magazine. It is possibly the best spinach dip recipe I’ve ever come across and works just as well if you make it their “light” way or if you go ahead and use full fat cheese and sour cream. Which I do. And I use way more spinach than they call for.

In that bowl is the greatest tortilla chip known to mankind; The Harry & David’s Multigrain tortilla chip.

How great is it? They try to keep them all for themselves as they are not even listed on their website. (Some guy in Michigan has even noted how many people look for these chips online.) Apparently, the only way you can get them is if you stop at one of their stores. Which means 3 out of 5 times we drive back from Santa Barbara, we stop at the outlet stores just to buy some of the chips.

Something about them – maybe it’s the black sesame seeds – is just downright magical. Sturdy enough to hold up to most dips and salsas and yet still light in texture.

Pants Off, Dance Off Drinks

We keep full bar at our place, which is good because what is the point of owning so many books about cocktails if you can never make them. You cannot taste pretty pictures.

Sometimes you just want to poor a bunch of different things in a glass and see what happens next. (The old college football just heave-the-ball-down-field-and-hope-it-works mentality if you will.)

Which is what we call the Pants Off, Dance Off in our place. Will light rum, cognac, and Frangelica mix? What about amaretto and vodka – which is called a Godmother – be ok if I cut it with a splash of ginger ale? What about grappa and… no. Not the grappa. You get the idea.

This is the weekend to Pants Off, Dance Off. Show them something that they have not seen before.

* The whole broken camera / dead memory card means that I don’t actually have the pictures from the cookies I sent out to everyone. This picture is from a batch I made for the Super Bowl a couple of years ago.
** If you make the pumpkin spice cookies, add a pinch of all spice to the batter to give it more depth. It also makes too much frosting if you go by that recipe, so half the amount so you can just drizzle it over the cookies.
*** I have to say Ravens because they nearly beat New England and they defeated the Steelers JV squad. Really, the Colts have had an easy stretch since Week 13 against the Jags.**** TSB made this particular batch for the NHL Ice Bowl, marking at least the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen him cook in five years.

I’m glad TSW owned up to the fact that I made this dip. And also, let that same something about the ease of making this thing. Usually I manage to mess up the easiest portion of any baking recipe and wind up with, oh say overdone chocolate chip cookies that have become brown, muddled messes because I didn’t FOLD the chips into the dough, I just used the Kitchen Aid mixer to beat them in. (Oops.)

This dip turned out incredibly successfully (fed us for two days) and made me feel slightly more gormand than an average episode of Rachel Ray. (Yeah me!)

And yes, there were hints and allegations of a new camera for TSW. But then we made the mistake of sitting in this cute, comfortable little chair in a furniture store and leaning back in it to test out its fortitude at being able to allow us to comfortably play the Wii and OHMYGOD IS THIS A RECLINER?! And that was that.

Besides, who needs a whole camera when I’ve got one built into the phone so I can take fun and exciting pictures of: 1) A guy in a Greg Lloyd jersey in Disneyland, stalker-azzi style, 2) Maddox (of THEBESTPAGEINTHEUNIVERSE.com fame)?

Last night that I went to the bar that we reviewed in the FFF and you serendipitously posted a picture of in one of your genius posts this week and accidentally overdid it with an old friend during our discussion of the Steelers crushing loss, conflicted feelings about New England, the Piston’s woes, and how the guy living in my friend’s garage finally moved out. (And something about a naked Google employee having sex in his shower during a pool party.)

I just wanted to make sure and go on record as saying those cookies are HEAVENLY. I used them as sugar fuel during a long drive I had to make, and the leftovers were fought over by my friends at a foobaw watching party.